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After three years of intense focus on therapy and personal growth, I'm finally hitting the keys again and will be jumping into NaNoWriMo on November 1st, 2016. Stay tuned for updates!

Wednesday, 6 February 2013

QUOTES #1 - Sir Winston Churchill and more...

My
deepest apologies for the tardiness of this post (and that it followed a tardy
post from last week... eek! A bad habit
seems to be forming!)

Anyway,
this week’s post is actually one that I have been thinking about for a while
and will be the first in a series; though the series may be
non-consecutive. Now that the first
draft of My Mother’s Daughters is
complete and back in hibernation for a bit (so I can look at it with fresh eyes
after some time apart), I have been thinking about my next project: Eve of Destruction. I have mentioned this show in previous posts;
it will be a musical using already written songs (along the lines of Mama Mia!, Rock of Ages, and We Will
Rock You) addressing the manipulation by the media of public opinion and
how it can be used by governments and big business as a propaganda machine (do
I hear echoes of Orwell?? Hello, is this 1984
calling? Yes!). It also deals largely
with war and what leads a country to go to war and how the media plays a role
in influencing the population to support these wars (*cough, cough*
Iraq?). I’ve been finding that much of
my writing is leaning towards varying perspectives on war, violence and
government; many ideas are varieties of dystopian fantasy fiction, but I’m
finding with all of these, a huge influence is from quotes that I read.

A while
ago, I picked up a copy of the book 1001
Smartest Things Ever Said edited by Steven D. Price. This is where my plunder comes from this
week. I’ve highlighted many of my
favourites and starred ones that have particular relevance to Eve of Destruction. Those will be the main quotes I’m focusing on
in this part of my plunder.

It
starts with Sir Winston Churchill:

“It is a good thing for an uneducated man to
read books or quotations. Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations is an admirable work, and I studied it
intently. The quotations when engraved
upon the memory give you good thoughts.
They also make you anxious to read the authors and look for more.”

Very
true. I was surprised how many of my
favourite authors, poets and respected politicians I had flagged in the book of
quotations and how many new names I found myself repeatedly flagging. With every new name, a new curiosity was
sparked and I was determined to read more about or by this person. Quotations are fantastic for that. When I came across this quote by Churchill,
it put everything in perspective for me.
This perspective was then fully expressed by the next quote I came across:

“I quote others only in order to better express
myself.” – Michel
de Montaigne

How apt
for this situation!

So, here
are the quotes that I’m using to better express some of my ideas in Eve of Destruction.

Ironically,
I’ve found that many of the quotes that I’ve stolen for the inspiration for
this piece come from former American presidents and political leaders. Not that the show is a condemnation of
American views, but it is a commentary on the way it seems the population is
led like sheep by a very right wing media presence. As a Canadian, much of what we see in the
media is produced and manufactured in the USA and though we are a distinct
nation, many of the issues that are prominent in the United States also run
rampant through Canadian cities as well.
But since America is a global superpower, it provides more examples of
disturbing trends in the ever changing public consciousness.

This is
the fundamental essence of the show (and personally, one of my greatest
fears). After the shootings in Newtown,
there was a cry for greater gun control laws and big push from the other side
that gun control was not the answer, in fact we need more guns to be safe. “You can’t take away our guns!” As a Canadian, this is scary. We don’t need guns. We need to help people, we need to trust each
other and look for ways of prevention.
More availability of guns will only increase the risk of their use. If no one has guns, it’s hard to use
them. As a member of the “Western World”
or “First World”, it is becoming increasingly apparent that our privilege is
becoming greater than our principles. We
believe that things are necessary and our right, when they are luxuries
afforded to very few people in this world.
Imagine living life without your iPod, iPhone, computer, internet, cable
TV, dishwasher, car, running water, etc.
I’m not saying that we should give all this up, but we have been overrun
by commercialism and think we are entitled to these things. How often do you donate money to a
charity? Or even think twice about
picking up a disposable water bottle? We
can drink our tap water, but actually go out and buy it in the store; yet we
don’t give a second thought to those people living without fresh water around
the world. Mostly, we need to think
about the legacy our generation is going to leave behind. What world will our children inherit? What is the impact that we have on our
planet? We can no longer think as
individuals for our actions impact the planet globally. We no longer live in a world of perceived
unlimited resources, we need to be shepherds and care for the planet we have
been given and all the beings upon it. This is not to say that we should all
throw away everything we possess and donate all our money to the poor, nor am I
exempting myself from being a part of this culture of privilege, I am saying
that we need to start paying attention to what is really necessary in our lives
and what we can do to raise the quality of life for everyone on this
planet. Which brings me to FDR...

“The future days, which we seek to make secure,
we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression
– everywhere in the world. The second is
freedom for every person to worship God in his own way – everywhere in the
world. The third is freedom of want –
which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will
secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants –
everywhere in the world. The fourth is
freedom from fear – which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide
reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no
nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against
any neighbour – anywhere in the world.” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt

I was
actually surprised when I read that this was from FDR; not because I don’t
think FDR was an amazing president that did a lot of really difficult and
wonderful things, but just the fact that I feel that a lot of North American
ideas have shifted away from these goals, especially in America. (I would like to qualify that I am not
American, but being a neighbour that is greatly influenced by and inundated
with their culture, I feel I have a fairly clear idea of the feelings that are
flowing through the country.) Part of Eve of Destruction is about bringing
that global perspective back to a country that seems to have turned inward with
their perspective. We can only ever
really have peace and freedom at home, when there is peace and freedom in the
rest of the world. We cannot live under
the illusion that we are safe when there is still fear and destruction in the
rest of the world. FDR had it
right. What also strikes a chord with
me, which is something that Eve of
Destruction touches on, is “freedom for every person to worship God in his
own way”. We have built a world of Us
and Them. The concept that we can all
live in harmony seems to be lost. As a
Canadian, I feel like we have managed a tenuous balance and are working to
improve it, but are still far from achieving this freedom unconditionally. Again, as I’ve stated in other posts, I feel
one of my greatest tasks as a writer is to promote discussion. To add a voice to issues and bring to light
feelings that are lying dormant. I know
many will say: but people have been discussing this for years, look FDR said it
way back! I know, but if every generation
doesn’t add new voices to chorus, the discussion will die out and the goal will
not be achieved. Until we see the day
that these freedoms have been realized anywhere and everywhere in the world,
new voices are needed to make the statement heard.

My last
quote for this part of the series (I flagged 63 for this post in particular
from the ... number I starred and have only used 5) shook me to the core when I
read it and echoed the final moments I have written for Eve of Destruction perfectly.

“I know not with what weapons World War III
will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” – Albert Einstein

We spend
so much time, money and energy developing new ways to kill each other instead
of trying to help each other that eventually we will be the masters of our own
destruction.

Books
referenced in this post (look for them at your local bookstore):

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Welcome to Art Thief!

After a few failed attempts at creating "themed story" blogs, I have been inspired to create a blog with the true intention of the format: a simple web log of my inspirations as a writer and artist.

This blog is dedicated to Austin Kleon, whose book Steal Like an Artist, has been my primary inspiration.

In this book, Kleon discusses how all art is stolen in some way and a good artist knows what is worth stealing. As artists, we cannot fool ourselves into thinking that everything we create is original. We all draw our inspiration from many sources and we steal little gems from each one to develop our own body of work. Kleon's book outlines simple practices to ensure that you keep your art alive; one being: SHARE YOUR WORK.

Thief Profile

Good thieves never reveal their identity... although, good thieves don't likely advertise their plunders to the rest of the world either.

Art Thief, aka AJ, keeps her home in Toronto, Canada; though work often pulls her to every corner of the globe.

AJ is a writer and teacher disguised as a mild mannered stage manager. She loves working in theatre and being able to surround herself with some of the best artists in the industry (while plotting to take over the world with her own work). As a stage manager, AJ is constantly immersed in all forms of art. Talk about inspiration overload! The number of stories and characters that fill each day is more than any writer could ask. The goal now: keep up!

AJ is working on a lot of projects in 2013, including: the first full length run of her play, Empty Boxes; and the launch of Homestead Theatre Project. Stay tuned in the Happenings section of this blog for details.